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greenie-slayer
Posts: 850 Officer
Having Troubling Shooting Turkeys
greenie-slayer
Posts: 850 Officer
Wondering if I could get some insight from you bird shooters. I keep finding turkeys and have some great content to shoot but I can't seem to focus to well on them. With bird running/walking, feathers moving, and grass moving around the bird it has made it tough. What steps can I take to get a sharper image with all this movement going on? Sadly they will not sit still and let you take your time to get a nice shot.
Replies
You need continuous one-point focus, very high ISO, shutter speed of 1/640 sec or so......and maybe in a pinch 1/400 sec with few keepers.
You need a camera and a lens that can shoot in the dark (low light.) Again, what is your setup?
Also, on my monitor it looks like your photos need a white balance adjustment. Shoot in a RAW format if you can and not JPG.
Keep shooting and let us know what you have.
Looks like I will need to change up some settings. I know my camera does not do well in low light but I found these turkeys at 1 pm. I don't know why hunters get up so early in the mornings. I can find turkey and deer pretty much anytime of the day. Maybe I should start hunting more.
Try to not jerk the shutter button but "press" it. Twice the focal length inverted for a shutter speed is always a good idea, but you have that.
Example. focal length at 300mm >>>>>> 1/600 sec minimum shutter speed.
If it is dark-ish that particular lens will "hunt" focus and not always be spot on.
The D3xxx and D5xxx series cameras are notorious for having to hunt through menus (slow) to make exposure changes. The D3xxx cameras are so inexpensive I use them as throw away cameras for time lapse on construction sites.
Seems like you are ready for a more advanced camera - where the exposure changes can be made more quickly with readily available buttons at your fingertips. The sensor in that camera is very good and capable of great images if you do your part. Now with that said, try to control your breathing, don't slap the shutter, and update your ACR.
Keep shooting and posting and asking questions. Good luck. We will wait for more.
Sparse Grey wait until later next week when I can post the pictures from my trip to Costa Rica. I think you will like those photos. I have many I am proud to say I shot.
*** Native Watercraft Magic 14.5 ***
*** www.onewolf.org ***
I loved your turkey shots and think they're just fine, sharp enough when looking at the average 6 bit monitor. I'd also continue leaving your white balance in auto. I've always felt white balance to be more a matter of taste rather than something which had to agree to some standard. We used to use warming filters all the time back in the film days and they were certainly not accurate at all. In Adobe Camera RAW, I just slide the temp slider until I like the look and the whites look as white as I want. I like scenics a little on the warm side and food a little on the cool side. People in the middle. :wink
With regards to focus accuracy, beginners have a tendency to focus a little in front of what they intend, I've observed. I sometimes don't think they are paying attention where the focus points are or maybe they haven't locked them down. Also, focus can be grabbed by something slightly in front of the intended target, like some grass, for example. It's not always easy, so keep practicing.
I also like your shutter speed up there. I shoot any birds at 1000th and higher, mostly higher, when I can. I also do something a little more advanced in that I don't generally set ISO much above base level these days. I do my brightening in post processing. This makes some of my shots look underexposed by up to 5 stops in exposure value which is the limit of my sensor. So in very dim light where someone might need 6 stops of ISO or ISO 6400, I might give it 2 stops of ISO and do the other 4 while editing by increasing the brightness level. This allows very low noise shots in dim light, but is somewhat of an advanced technique. It works best for Nikon, Sony and Pentax, but not so good for Canon because Canon tends to achieve ISO increases by adding a lot of gain to the signal after the data is captured. The others do it more by adding brightness after the data is captured. ISO is not really part of some made up exposure triangle.
Anyway, have fun and keep being passionate.
Onewolf I have seen some nice gobblers out where I am shooting just since I have to sneak up on them to get a shot I never get very close. I bet with a turkey call I could pull one in close. and get a nice shot like yours. It might be awhile before I can find another hen with chicks though
*** Native Watercraft Magic 14.5 ***
*** www.onewolf.org ***
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